Jammu, March 16
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is keeping mum on the rejection of its demand for pullout of troops from the Kashmir valley by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, though Mufti Mohammad Sayeed held deliberations with PDP leaders throughout the day.

There was no official reaction of the party to the reply of the Prime Minister, but sources said the Mufti and the PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti had not liked the way their demand had been rejected. The Mufti is expected to convene a meeting of senior leaders of the party in the next two or three days to deliberate over the issue.

However, some party leaders have reportedly appreciated the views expressed by Manmohan Singh in the letter. They said the reply of the Prime Minister was “very positive” as he had given an assurance to review the situation after the tourist season.

The Mufti had yesterday received the Prime Minister’s reply to his letter in which he had made three demands of gradual pull out of the troops, repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and vacation of orchards and agriculture land by security forces. The Prime Minister had said the time was not ripe to meet the first two demands.

The ministers belonging to the PDP had boycotted two successive meetings of the Cabinet in support of these demands.

On the other hand, Mehbooba has welcomed the announcement of the Central Government that it is considering the review of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) as has been recommended by the Justice B.P. Reddy Committee.

Responding to the statement made by union minister of state for home affairs S. Raghupathy in the Rajya Sabha that the recommendations of the Justice Reddy Committee for the review of AFSPA were under consideration of the government, she said theses had vindicated her party’s stand that the Act was proving counterproductive and only added to the alienation of the people in the trouble-torn state.

Srinagar, March 16
The phased pull-out of the Border Security Force (BSF) from counter-insurgency operations in the Kashmir valley, which began about four years ago, has been completed with replacement by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) yesterday.

The final and the last phase was effected with the replacements by 10 battalions of the CRPF in Tral, Pulwama in the south Kashmir and Budgam, Sopore and Baramula in north Kashmir.

According to a CRPF spokesman, the replacement was made by two battallions each in Tral and Pulwama in south Kashmir, while six more battalions were replaced in the north Kashmir towns. However, its presence would remain at Raj Bhavan and the Srinagar airport, the spokesman said.

With this the counter-insurgency operations across the trouble torn Kashmir valley are entrusted with the CRPF as part of the efforts to hand over the operations to a single para-military agency.

This decision of the Central Government following an overall view of the situation will help in a systematic and coordinated operations in the valley, official sources said.

The first eight battalions were pulled out of Srinagar early in 2004, after which other battallions were pulled out in a phased manner. It had taken some time for the last replacement that was undertaken after the pre-induction training of the recruits in the counter-insurgency operations.

Srinagar, March 16
One person was killed and seven others were injured, one of them seriously, in a powerful IED explosion at the busy bus stand at Baramula in north Kashmir this afternoon.

The police here said the explosion took place at 12.50 pm during peak rush hours. The deceased had been identified as Ghulam Nabi Bhat from Botengoo, Sopore. Five seriously injured had been shifted to the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences Soura, while two were taken to a hospital in Baramula, whose condition was stated to be out of danger. The condition of Sheikh Mohammad Syed is stated to be critical.

Meanwhile, the police recovered a large quantity of arms and ammunition from Kralpora area near here today. — TNS